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Being rejected by The New Yorker means not having to send the same letter John O'Hara sent them for not getting paid your worth. O'Hara didn't need to name-check Dorothy Parker. I was the only 14-year-old anyone knew who had his own subscription to The New Yorker. My parents worried about me!

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Of the Metaphysical Poets, I wish George Herbert's name had as much cachet at John Donne. Students have at least heard of Donne, rarely Herbert. This is my copy of the 1641 6th edition of Herbert's The Temple. The inscription is from an anonymous hand. #booksky #poetry

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Hemingway wrote The Torrents of Spring just to mock Sherwood Anderson's Dark Laughter (influenced by James Joyce) The cruel part is Anderson had seen Hemingway as his protege prior. Showing my copy of Dark Laughter w/ a kind inscription to his publisher Horace Liveright. ❤️ 📚 #booksky

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

As someone who was twice named an NEH Summer Scholar at Yale and later at The Folger Shakespeare Institute, I wrote letters asking that funding for NEH not be cut. I had no idea that the true cut would be to academic inquiry. My experiences were transformative for me as a teacher of young people.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

We need more poetry indeed! But one could argue that poetry doesn't block out the noise of the world - it helps us to process this noise. Start my AP Lit class each year w/Robert Frost's essay "Education by Poetry," which makes a case for poetry. Education by poetry is education by metaphor.

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

Stephen Vincent Benet's poem "John Brown's Body" is one of the uniquely quotable poems for so many moments of injustice, freedom, and human rights. My two different copies. Showing my 1928 limited signed edition of Benet's poem. #booksky

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

"The American Dream:" A Course Syllabus open.substack.com/pub/joycecar...

submitted 10 days ago • 3 comments

Prosper Merimee's "Chronicle of the Times of Charles Ninth" is presented here in a special edition, featuring a handwritten letter by Merimee bound into the book. Merimee, a distinguished French writer, penned the novella "Carmen", later adapted into Bizet's famous opera. #booksky

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Bizet's opera Carmen comes from Prosper Merimee's novella, but it's not mentioned enough that Merimee's Carmen was influenced by Pushkin's poem The Gypsies. It also is not mentioned enough that Pushkin's great-grandfather was a Black African. Pushkin: Father of Russian Literature. #booksky

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I teach Alfred Tennyson's The Eagle to my grade twelve students each year as we delve into the difference between prose and poetry. I also do a book show and tell when I bring in my limited edition copy of Tennyson's works, signed by the publisher with a fine binding by Ramage. #booksky #poetrysky

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

I think Bernie Wrightson's illustration is my preferred one for representing Shelley's Frankenstein with fidelity. My illustrated limited signed edition of Wrightson's Frankenstein. 1994 edition limited to 26 copies with intro. by Stephen King and signed by Wrightson. #booksky #comicsky

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Mourt's Relation is actually worth a read. In my defense, I acquired my rare copy for the binding and provenance. Owned by one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Henry Gurdon Marquand, with his gilt owner mark on the cover. Limited edition: 250 from 1865, initialed. #booksky #💙📚

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

Much gratitude to James Joyce patron John Quinn. Quinn purchased Joyce's early manuscript of Ulysses when Joyce was struggling financially. Quinn's money allowed Joyce to complete Ulysses! My copy of Thoreau's limited Ed, "Of Friendship" w/Quinn's bookplate by WB Yeats' brother, JB. #BOOKSKY

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

So odd to know that Edmund Spenser's Poetical Works debuted as a 1st American edition in 1839. My copy is in a special custom binding with hand tooling and mosaic covers. There are two title pages, one done in chromolithography to match the binding design. #booksky

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

I have had the opportunity to spend time in several major academic libraries - from Yale's Beinecke to the Folger to The Newberry to Columbia's Butler. They were all great experiences. However, I never thought about what libraries hide or leave out. paw.princeton.edu/article/prin...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Showing my first edition 1928 Carter G. Woodson signed copy of Negro Makers of History. Considered one of the 1st Black History textbooks. Woodson inscribed my copy to Augustus G. Dill, who was an important protege of W. E. B. Du Bois at Harvard. I hope someone tells Dill's story one day!

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

I can't even tell you how many editions of Chaucer's works I own. This Pickering edition becomes special because the bookplate (2nd photo) shows this set belonged to the 14th Earl of Derby, who held the position of UK Prime Minister three times! #books #booksky #bookcollecting #armorialplates

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

To have the best appreciation of Chaucer's world, a guide with the qualities listed by Ms. Oates would be ideal. I would just add that the guide should also ideally be someone who can tap the high and low of Chaucer's storytelling.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

I think this was either an Alfred Hitchcock Presents or Twilight Zone. I think they used the bodies of dangerous criminals for the statues.

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

One of my favorite country songs as a kid was Kenny Rogers singing: "You gotta know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, Know when to run." This article on the sinking of the Titanic does make me think about how we make these decisions with any tough decision.

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment

After one day back at work

submitted 54 days ago • 2 comments

I "can" bear to read Elizabeth Bishop's poetry reading more than a few times. My copy of the Uncorrected Proof of Bishop's collection of poetry with One Art. I wish I were able to find a regular hard copy.

submitted 54 days ago • 0 comments

My love for Broadway AND the poetry of Thomas Hardy led me to acquire Broadway Legend Jerome Kern's (Showboat) copy of Thomas Hardy's "Satire of Circumstance" from 1914. Jerome Kern's very cool green bookplate is affixed to the book. #booksky #theatersky www.independent.co.uk/news/people/...

submitted 58 days ago • 1 comment

It's out of copyright now -- Nella Larsen's "Passing." To celebrate, I put together a simple digital edition with web, TXT, PDF, and EPUB versions. Also wrote a brief intro. scalar.lehigh.edu/african-amer...

submitted 60 days ago • 11 comments

Crossposting from Twitter: I will always say that "Sunday in the Park with George" is Stephen Sondheim's Moby Dick or Hamlet, or Beloved. In other words, it is his masterpiece. I'm sure some will disagree. I acquired this limited signed edition of "Sunday" some years ago. My favorite! #booksky

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

A single leaf from the Brescia Dante of 1487 included in my limited edition publication about the printer Boninus de Boninis. This 1487 folio leaf from Dante's The Divine Comedy covers Paradiso. A whole book built around a leaf from this very early printing. #Dante #Books

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

In addition, secondary school teachers and librarians should also have some skin in the game when judging book awards. It would be one way to pull more contemporary books into the curriculum.

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

You’re the US Marines band at the White House and Mavis Staples 👑 walks into the room so you start playing "I’ll Take You There" and this happens👇

submitted 68 days ago • 1368 comments

Artistic renderings of literary characters and scenes from James Joyce's books are a curiosity. Showing my Saul Field engraving from the 1972, 250 copy limited edition "Bloomsday: An Interpretation of James Joyce's Ulysses" by Field & Levitt. Not especially rare, but I like it.

submitted 69 days ago • 0 comments

www.noirfest.com/en/homeeng/j...

submitted 88 days ago • 10 comments

My copies of The Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare finally arrived last week from that huge online "bookstore." So many gems! The essay by Shakespearean Dr. Ellen MacKay brilliantly captures why Romeo & Juliet is a perennial survivor in HS ELA classrooms. #FolgerED #Shakespeare

submitted 89 days ago • 0 comments

it may be wrong/superficial to judge people by their faces but--these are beautiful faces....

submitted 95 days ago • 2 comments

Marie Bonaparte was the great gand niece of Napolean I of France. In addition to being a patient of Freud, she helped finance Freud's escape from Nazi Vienna. My set of her books is inscribed to Eissler, who helped establish the Freud archives. #Freud #Books #Napolean

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments

John Quincy Adams was a president who was at least a serious reader. The 1803 Boston edition of Shakespeare's works was the second most important publication of his work in America after the Philly edition. My copy shows he was a subscriber to this important edition! #Shakespeare

submitted 97 days ago • 0 comments

Recently asked what is the best way to start book collecting. Of course, start by collecting titles you like. EP and FL are good for beginners. Very affordable but not rare. Don't make expensive mistakes in the beginning. Showing some of the EP and FL author signed books I started with. #books

submitted 98 days ago • 0 comments